Tanzanian newspapers welcomed on Friday the resignation of Prime Minister Edward Lowassa over a parliamentary probe into an emergency power generation contract.
President Jakaya Kikwete accepted Lowassa’s resignation and dissolved his Cabinet late on Thursday. State House did not provide further details about his resignation, or say when a new cabinet was expected to be appointed.
A committee which has been investigating a contract awarded to United States-based Richmond Development Company LLC since November, handed its report to Parliament on Wednesday.
The report questions the transparency with which Richmond won the 172,9-billion Tanzania shilling ($149-million) tender in 2006, and Lowassa’s influence in the choice.
”We are encouraged … Parliament has been able to uphold its mandate … by handling this sensitive matter in a manner that has made it possible for the prime minister to offer his resignation,” said an editorial in the privately owned Guardian newspaper.
”We wish to commend all Members of Parliament and those of the select committee for living up to public expectations by saying … that the country’s corridors of power should not be seen to be immersed in vice.”
Lowassa tendered his resignation on Thursday, saying he had not been given a chance to defend himself before the parliamentary committee.
Richmond officials were not available for comment.
Along with the prime minister’s office, the Energy and Minerals Ministry and others were involved in tendering for emergency power generation to ease power cuts that hit Tanzania in 2006 after a regional drought hit hydroelectric generation.
Another paper stressed the need for Kikwete to rid his government of public officials bent on using their positions to promote graft, which has left the public with a negative perception of its rulers.
”It is commendable that Kikwete has seen this impediment just two years into his presidency,” the state-run Daily News said in its editorial.
”Apart from raising efficiency in public service delivery, purging opportunistic business people from the leadership ranks will prove effective in combating grand corruption.” – Reuters